Memor | Hanru Wehmeyer

Snapshot

Productivity apps reinforce guilt by maximising output, so Memor reframes the calendar as a fluid, mindful shape with a voice that talks to you like a friend.

A conceptual app for overcoming productivity guilt. In place of rigid schedules, it pairs a fluid calendar with interchangeable tone-of-voice profiles, keeping the focus on well-being over output.

Problem

Productivity guilt, never doing “enough”, is reinforced by apps that maximise output. Research sharpened the constraint: digital calendars offer flexibility, physical ones visibility. Running IDEO’s “Five Whys” surfaced the same roots each time: productivity, not letting people down, and wanting to feel in control.

Make the calendar a fluid shape, not a grid

A static grid became a fluid, organic shape, keeping a clock face so it stays familiar rather than alien. Events sit as circles at their scheduled hours and bleed into the base shape to suggest flexible timing; bigger circle, longer event. A 0–23 scale replaces 12/24-hour to discourage rigidity about time.

Drop "App Talk" for a brutally honest voice

I pushed back on "App Talk", relentless niceness that does little for real motivation, for a brutally honest voice, like a friend who keeps you in check. Since bluntness won't suit everyone, three interchangeable profiles: The Brutally Honest, The Bestie, and The Storyteller.

Stack the daily shape into a week

To compete with existing calendars I added a weekly view by stacking the daily shape into a swipeable week, rather than inventing a second visual language. That unexpectedly made weekly trends visible.

Shipped

High-fidelity prototypes: the fluid 0–23 clock-calendar with event circles, animated event management, three tone-of-voice profiles, a stacked weekly view, and notes.

A chat-style exchange applying the Five Whys technique to why people use calendars. — Research, running IDEO's "Five Whys" to reach the real reasons behind calendar use.

A physical paper desk calendar with handwritten notes propped on a windowsill. — Physical calendars trade flexibility for visibility: the tension Memor set out to resolve.

A blue organic blob sitting inside a twelve-point clock face. — Turning a static, geometric layout into a fluid organic shape, kept familiar by the clock face.

Memor's main screen: the fluid clock-calendar with a blunt message and a main menu. — The main screen, events as circles around the hours, with a characteristically blunt nudge.

Two Memor notifications written in a brutally honest tone telling the user to go for a walk. — The Brutally Honest voice in action, motivation that reads like a friend keeping you in check.

A radial weekly calendar built by stacking each day's organic shape. — The weekly view, stacking daily shapes made weekly trends visible at a glance.

Over-the-shoulder photo of a participant using the Memor prototype on a phone. — User testing the prototype flow.

Outcome

Testing praised the calendar as innovative, easy to understand, and effective against feeling overwhelmed. The Brutally Honest voice landed hardest, though the profiles were hard to tell apart, and grey events felt unappealing.

Reflection

The three tone-of-voice profiles were hard to tell apart in testing, given another pass I’d differentiate them much more sharply, and revisit the grey used for events.